Heterogeneous processors sharing a common cache

ABSTRACT

A multi-core processor providing heterogeneous processor cores and a shared cache is presented.

This U.S. Patent application is a continuation of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 10/993,579 filed Nov. 19, 2004.

BACKGROUND

Modern general purpose processors often access main memory (typicallyimplemented as dynamic random access memory, or “DRAM”) through ahierarchy of one or more caches (e.g., L1 and L2 caches). Relative tomain memory, caches (typically static random access memory, or “SRAM”,based) return data more quickly, but use more area and power. Memoryaccesses by general purpose processors usually display high temporal andspatial locality. Caches capitalize on this locality by fetching datafrom main memory in larger chunks than requested (spatial locality) andholding onto the data for a period of time even after the processor hasused that data (temporal locality). This behavior often allows requeststo be served very rapidly from cache, rather than more slowly from DRAM.Caches also generally can satisfy a much higher read/write load (forhigher throughput) than main memory so previous accesses are less likelyto be queued and slow current accesses.

Computational workloads like networking and graphics are often performedbetter on special purpose processors designed specifically for the givenworkload. Examples of such special purpose processors include networkprocessors and graphics accelerators. In general these special purposeprocessors are placed outside of the general purpose processor's cachinghierarchy, often on a Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) orAccelerated Graphics Port (AGP).

Memory accesses by the special purpose processor therefore involve onlymain memory, not the cache of the general purpose processor. Moving databetween the general purpose processor and the special purpose processoroften requires both a main memory write and a main memory read, so sucha transfer can proceed at only DRAM speeds.

DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

FIGS. 1A-1C show an exemplary heterogeneous multi-core processor havinga bus-based shared cache architecture.

FIG. 2 shows an exemplary heterogeneous multi-core processor having amulti-ported shared cache architecture.

FIG. 3 shows an exemplary heterogeneous multi-core processor having aswitch-based shared cache architecture.

FIG. 4 shows an exemplary heterogeneous multi-core processor (with ashared cache) connected to a main memory of a multi-core general purposeprocessor by a bridge.

FIG. 5 shows an exemplary networking application in which aheterogeneous multi-core processing system such as those illustrated inFIGS. 1-4 is employed.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

FIGS. 1A-1C show a multi-processor system 10 that includes amulti-processor 12 coupled to a main memory 14 by a memory bus 16. Themulti-processor 12 includes a cache (“shared cache”) 18 and multipleprocessor “cores” (collectively, processor cores 20) that are connectedto and share the cache 18. The shared cache 18 in this figure isintended to represent a unit that includes both cache memory andassociated control logic. The cache control logic includes logic to mapmemory addresses (“cache tags”) currently cached with their associatedcache lines.

The processor cores 20 include heterogeneous cores, that is,architecturally different processor cores (or types of processor cores).For example, the processor cores 20 may include one or more specialpurpose processor cores and/or at least one central processing unit(CPU) core.

The special purpose processor cores may include, for example, at leastone network processor unit (NPU) core and/or a graphics engine core. Inthe illustrated embodiment, the processor cores 20 include multiple NPUcores, shown as NPU cores 22 a, 22 b, . . . , 22 k, as well as a CPUcore 24. The NPU cores 22 may be programmble Reduced Instruction SetComputing (RISC) cores that feature hardware support for multi-threadedoperation. The NPU cores 22 may lack instructions typically found inother processors such as integer multiplication or division or floatingpoint operations since these operation occur relatively infrequently inprocessing network packets. The CPU core 24 may be based on thearchitecture of any type of general purpose processors, e.g., an Intel®Architecture processor (“IA processor”) such as the Intel® Xeon™processor, or the Intel Pentium® 4 processor or Xscale™ processor.

Although not shown, it may be appreciated that the CPU core 24 may use aprivate cache (e.g., the private cache may be an L1 cache and the sharedcache may be an L2 cache) as well.

The processor cores 20 are connected to the shared cache 18 via sometype of interconnect mechanism, e.g., a shared bus 26, as shown.Accesses by both the CPU core 24 and the NPU core 22 may be servicedfrom the cache 18 (if the data is present there) very rapidly. Such anaccess is called a cache hit, meaning the data is returned more quickly.A cache hit also decreases the number of accesses to main memory 14,increasing the rate with which other accesses (cache misses or accessfrom I/O agents) can be serviced. Data used by both types of processorcores 22, 24 can be accessed very rapidly from the shared cache 18,without the need for DRAM or even cache-to-cache transfers. Data can bepassed from one processor core (say, the NPU core 22) to anotherprocessor core (say, the CPU core 24) through cache reads and writes,enabling such processor cores to proceed at a faster rate and withoutloading the main memory 14.

Passing of data between the two processor core types can be accomplishedwith the shared cache in the following way. The processor core with thedata writes it to cache. This same processor core informs the otherprocessor core that the data is ready (e.g., through an interrupt orflag update). The second processor core may then read the data, pullingit directly from the shared cache 18. The data passed between theprocessor cores need not be written to or read from the main memory 14.The two types of processor cores can, therefore, pass data in such amanner at the data rate of the shared cache, which is often much higherthan that allowed by main memory, and without loading the main memorywith avoidable DRAM reads and writes.

The close coupling of the NPU core 22 and the CPU core 24 allows thesecores to collaborate on specific networking algorithms (like IntrusionDetection, Firewalling, Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) acceleration, forexample) in a more fine-grained manner. The shared cache allowsmigration of related work (and state) from one core to another withoutthe use of DRAM.

Although not shown, it will be appreciated that one or more of the NPUcores 22 could be coupled to other resources, in particular, aninterface (or interfaces) to external network devices. Such externalmedia devices may be any media interface capable of transmitting and/orreceiving network traffic data, such as framing/media access control(MAC) devices, e.g., for connecting to 10/100BaseT Ethernet, GigabitEthernet, Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) or other types of networks,or interfaces for connecting to a switch fabric. For example, in onearrangement, one network device could be an Ethernet MAC device(connected to an Ethernet network) that transmits data to or receivesdata from the processor 12, and a second network device could be aswitch fabric interface to support communications to and from a switchfabric. Other NPU resources may include, for example, control statusregisters (CSRs), interfaces to other external memories, such as packetbuffer and control memories, and scratch memory.

In contrast with conventional systems, in which the special purposeprocessors are on separate silicon and are placed on the I/O connectorsof a general purpose processor (e.g., host) system, the core(s) of themulti-processor 12 are integrated onto the same die as the CPU core 24and, potentially, cache 18. Such integration allows the heterogeneouscores the opportunity to more efficiently share data as they are placedbehind a common cache. Thus, in one embodiment, as illustrated in thefigures, the processor cores, cache and interconnect reside on a singlechip. Alternatively, the processor cores 20, cache 18 and interconnect26 may be implemented as separate chips in a multi-chip package. In yetanother alternative embodiment, the processor cores 20, cache 18, andinterconnect 26 may be implemented as a combination of chip and boarddesign.

FIGS. 1B-1C show further details of the bus-based cache architecture,according to exemplary embodiments. In FIG. 1B, each of the NPU cores 22includes NPU core translation logic (NPU-TL) 30 and the CPU core 24includes CPU core translation logic (CPU-TL) 32. The translation logic30, 32 translates core-specific memory transactions (such as reads andwrites) into core-independent memory transactions that will appear onthe bus 26 and that are comprehended by the shared cache 18 withoutregard for the type of core that initiated them. In FIG. 1C, much or allof the burden of dealing with characteristics of core-specifictransactions shifts to the shared cache 18. Thus, the shared cache 18includes shared cache translation logic (SC-TL) 40 to support handlingof requests (and, more specifically, command set features) from thedifferent processor core types in an appropriate way. The shared cachetranslation logic 40 is a superset of the logic needed to support eachprocessor core type. The shared cache translation logic 40 may furtherinclude bus arbitration logic to prioritize bus access by processor coretype. Even in the latter example (shown in FIG. 1C), there may be someissues that need to be reconciled closer to the cores themselves. Forexample, in CPU applications a cache typically uses addresses todetermine memory type, but in NPU applications the cache may beinstructed as to memory type by the NPU command. Also, the processorcores may require support for encoding transactions with a coreidentifier.

As mentioned earlier, other core-to-cache interconnect mechanisms arepossible. For example, and as shown in FIG. 2, the cache 18 may be amulti-ported cache with a port for each core, or a single port for eachprocessor core type. Thus, in the case of the NPU 22 and CPU 24 cores,and as shown in the figure, the NPU cores 20 a, 20 b, . . . , 20 kconnect to a port 50 of a first port type (shown as “type A”) and theCPU core 24 uses a port 52 of a second port type (shown as “type B”).Although port 50 is shown as a shared port, it will be appreciated thateach NPU core could be connected to a respective port 50 over a separatechannel. In this approach, the type of core generating an access requestwould be known by the port through which the request was received. In amulti-ported architecture such as this, the ports of each type (that is,ports supporting the different processor core types) may be “tuned” forthe traffic patterns and other characteristics or features (such ascommands, sizes, alignments and so forth) of those different processorcore types. For example, NPU cores are bandwidth sensitive whereas CPUcores are more latency sensitive. Data returned by the cache for NPUrequests may be batched on return to optimize through-put for fixedoverhead. The tuning may take into account the types of transactions tobe performed by a specific core type. Certain types of cores may performmostly reads (e.g., graphics engines) while other core types may performa more balanced mix of reads and writes.

FIG. 3 shows yet another interconnect approach. With this approach eachof the cores is connected to the shared cache 18 by a switch 60 (e.g., acrossbar switch, as shown). The translation logic could be implementedin any one of the ways described above with respect to the bus-basedapproach.

Although not shown, the individual cores may include logic to supportinterrupts or flags for core-to-core signaling. Such inter-coresignaling may be used when one core, such as the NPU core 22, hastransferred work (e.g., in the form of packet data, pointers, state andso forth) to the shared cache 18 and needs to signal to a second core,such as the CPU core 24, that the work is available to be operated on bythe second core.

The processor 12 may participate as a unit in a cache coherent access toa main memory with one or more other processor/cache combinations, asshown in FIG. 4. Turning to FIG. 4, a system 70 includes the processor12 now connected to a main memory 72 by a bridge 74. The main memory 72is shared by a general purpose processor (GPP) 76, which is alsoconnected to the bridge 74. The GPP 76 includes one or more CPU cores 78behind a common (or shared) cache 80. The caches and bridge structureoperates in a manner that ensures all of the caches are kept coherent.

The bridge 74 may be implemented to allow the cores of the processor 12and the cores of GPP 76 to reference the main memory as well as theshared cache of the other processor with their own native accessprotocols. The shared cache organization enables the heterogeneousprocessor cores of the processor 12 to access the shared cache 18 intheir native mode of operation, but with no impact resulting from otherprocessor types (such as the CPU cores 78 of GPP 76) utilizing differentprotocols to access the shared cache 18. In one example implementationbased on an IXA-based NPU core 22 and IA-based CPU core 78, the NPU core22 may access the shared cache 18 via IXA protocols (such as CommandPush/Pull bus protocols) and view the shared cache as another memoryresource while external access to the shared cache 18 by one of the CPUcores 78 via the bridge 74 may be performed using IA cache access andcoherency mechanisms. As noted earlier, the heterogeneous cores of theprocessor 12 are able to fully access the shared cache 18 using theirnative (and different) access protocols. Data can be passed from a corein one processor to a core in the other processor in a cache-to-cachetransfer. This can be accomplished with lower latency and higherbandwidth than the alternative, a main memory write by one processor anda main memory read by the other, and does not load the main memory.

An example transfer is as follows. A CPU core 78 sends a read request toshared cache 80, which detects a cache miss and directs the read requestto the bridge 74. The bridge 74 sends the read request to the sharedcache 18, which contains a copy of the requested data. The shared cache18 returns the requested data to the shared cache 80 via the bridge 74.In an alternative scenario, the bridge 74 may send the read request toboth the shared cache 18 and the main memory 72, and decide which datacopy to use based on the response from the shared cache 18.

The shared cache mechanism may support different cache policies andfeatures, such as cache line alignment, cacheability and cache linelocking. Cache line alignment converts a memory transaction that affectsmore than one shared cache cache line to multiple memory accesses thateach fall within a single cache line. Cacheability of data involved in amemory transfer may be determined based on instruction type (e.g., aninstruction that specifies a non-cached transaction) and/or based onmemory type, e.g., as specified in a Memory Type Range Register (MTTR).With this feature at least one of the heterogeneous processor cores,e.g., the NPU core, is capable of generating reads and writes to themain memory 14 that bypass the shared cache 16 in the event of a cachemiss. Cache line locking refers to the locking of individual cache linesby a core. With the cache line locking feature at least one of theheterogeneous processor cores can lock a portion (e.g., a single cacheline, multiple cache lines, or all cache lines) of the shared cachelines for use as a private memory, possibly to extend local resources(such as scratch memory) already available to the core(s), or forextended private modification. By locking one, some or all of the cachelines, a core can utilize the locked memory space as extended localmemory, while the cores continue coherent operation on any remainingportion of the shared cache. When only one of the heterogeneousprocessor cores is actively using the shared cache, that processor corereceives the full benefit of the entire shared cache—effectively usingthe chip area to maximize performance. This cache locking may beimplemented in the same manner as locking for atomic operations, e.g.,using a cache line lock status field.

The utilization of one or more of these (and possibly other) techniquesmay be driven, at least in part, by the selection of core types. Forexample, some special purpose processors, such as network processors,include reads and writes to/from memory that the programmer knows tohave very poor temporal and spatial locality. The same may be true forsome accesses by the general purpose processor. To improve theefficiency of these accesses, therefore, it may be desirable to providememory read and write commands that do not result in cache activities.In other words, data is not placed in the cache, and does not evictother data already in the cache. Accesses that the programmer knows willnot hit cache can be routed around that cache, increasing the cache hitrate for other accesses. Also, different core types may supportdifferent data fetch/transfer sizes, some of which may not be cache linealigned. CPU cores such as an IA core typically generate requests thatfall within a single cache line, while an NPU such as an IXA networkprocessor may have the capability to generate requests of arbitrary sizeand that may span multiple cache lines.

The shared cache architecture described herein allows two differenttypes of processors to be placed behind the same cache. Such anarchitecture is likely to be required for high performance on workloadslike graphics, streaming media and networking as design trends headtowards multi-core processors. In networking applications, for example,it is possible to bring packet processing and general purpose processingcloser together for optimal, high-throughput communication betweenpacket processing elements of a network processor and the control and/orcontent processing of general purpose processors. For example, as shownin FIG. 5, a distributed processing platform 100 includes a collectionof blades 102 a-102 m and line cards 104 a-104 n interconnected by abackplane 106, e.g., a switch fabric (as shown). The switch fabric, forexample, may conform to Common Switch Interface (CSIX) or other fabrictechnologies such as HyperTransport, Infiniband, Peripheral ComponentInterconnect (PCI), Packet-Over-SONET, RapidIO, and/or Universal Testand Operations PHY Interface for ATM (UTOPIA).

The line card is where line termination and I/O processing occurs. Itmay include processing in the data plane (packet processing) as well ascontrol plane processing to handle the management of policies forexecution in the data plane. The blades 102 a-102 m may include: controlblades to handle control plane functions not distributed to line cards;control blades to perform system management functions such as driverenumeration, route table management, global table management, networkaddress translation and messaging to a control blade; applications andservice blades; and content processing. In a network infrastructure,content processing may be used to handle intensive content-basedprocessing outside the capabilities of the standard line cardapplications including voice processing, encryption offload andintrusion-detection where performance demands are high.

At least one of the line cards, e.g., line card 104 a, is a specializedline card that is implemented based on the architecture of heterogeneousmulti-core system 10 (or system 70), to more tightly couple theprocessing intelligence of CPU cores to the more specializedcapabilities of NPU cores. The line card 104 a includes media interfaces(MI) 108 to handle communications over network connections. Each mediainterface 108 is connected to a system 10 (or 70). In thisimplementation, one system is used as an ingress processor and the othersystem is used as an egress processor, although a single system couldalso be used. Each system 10 (or 70) is coupled to the switch fabric 106via a switch fabric interface (SFI) 110. Alternatively, or in addition,other applications based on the multi-processor systems 10, 70 could beemployed by the distributed processing platform 100. Depending on theconfiguration of blades and line cards, the distributed processingplatform 100 could implement a switching device (e.g., switch orrouter), a server, a datacenter or other type of equipment.

Other embodiments are within the scope of the following claims.

1. A processor comprising: processor cores including heterogeneousprocessor cores; and a cache connected to and shared by the processorcores; wherein the processor cores and the cache are integrated on asingle integrated die.
 2. The processor of claim 1 wherein theheterogeneous processor cores comprises a special purpose processorcore.
 3. The processor of claim 2 wherein the special purpose processorcore comprises a network processor unit (NPU) core having an instructionset that does not include an instruction for a floating point operation.4. The processor of claim 2 wherein the special purpose processor corecomprises a graphics engine core.
 5. The processor of claim 1 whereinthe heterogeneous processor cores comprises a central processing unit(CPU) core.
 6. The processor of claim 1 wherein the heterogeneousprocessor cores comprises a NPU core and a CPU core.
 7. The processor ofclaim 1 wherein the heterogeneous processor cores comprises a CPU coreand a graphics engine core.
 8. The processor of claim 1 wherein thecache comprises a multi-ported cache.
 9. The processor of claim 8wherein the processor cores comprise one or more processor cores of afirst type and one or more processor cores of a second type, and themultiported cache comprises at least one port to support transactionsgenerated by the one or more more processor cores of the first type andat least one port to support transactions generated by the one or moreprocessor cores of the second type.
 10. The processor of claim 9 whereinthe ports are configured to operate based on the respective processorcore types that the ports support.
 11. The processor of claim 10 whereinthe ports comprise ports configured based on one or more of: commandtypes, sizes, and alignments of the respective processor core types. 12.The processor of claim 10 wherein the heterogeneous processor corescomprise processor cores of different types and, and the multiportedcache provides a different port type for each different type ofprocessor core.
 13. The processor of claim 1 further comprising aninterconnect that couples the processor cores to the cache, theinterconnect comprising an interconnect bus.
 14. The processor of claim1 wherein the processor cores include translation logic to translatetransactions specific to each processor core to core-independenttransactions.
 15. The processor claim 1 wherein the heterogeneousprocessor cores comprise different types of processor cores and thecache includes logic to handle transactions generated by the differenttypes of processor cores.
 16. The processor of claim 1 wherein theheterogeneous processor cores use commands that allow different maximumtransfer sizes, where one of the different maximum transfer sizes allowstransfers that span multiple cache lines.
 17. The processor of claim 1wherein at least one of the heterogeneous processor cores is operable tolock a portion of the cache for extended private modification.
 18. Theprocessor of claim 1 wherein each processor core is capable of using theshared cache to pass data to another processor core.
 19. A systemcomprising: a bridge; a first, multi-core processor, coupled to thebridge, including heterogeneous processor cores arranged behind andconnected to a shared cache; a second processor, coupled to the bridge,that includes at least one processor core and a local cache connected tothe at least one processor core; and a main memory coupled to thebridge.
 20. The system of claim 19 wherein the heterogeneous processorcores comprises a special purpose processor core.
 21. The system ofclaim 20 wherein the special purpose processor core comprises a networkprocessor unit (NPU) core.
 22. The system of claim 19 wherein theheterogeneous processor cores comprises a central processing unit (CPU)core.
 23. The system of claim 19 wherein the heterogeneous processorcores comprises a NPU core and a CPU core.
 24. The system of claim 19wherein the at least one processor core of the second processor isoperable to generate a transaction to access the shared cache of thefirst multi-core processor via the bridge.
 25. The system of claim 24wherein the bridge is operated to access the shared cache according tonative protocols of the at least one processor core.
 26. The system ofclaim 24 wherein the heterogeneous processor cores access the sharedcache using respective native protocols, and wherein the respectivenative protocols are different from the native protocols of the at leastone processor core.
 27. The system of claim 19 wherein the shared cacheand local cache, in conjunction with the bridge, are operable tomaintain coherency with the main memory.
 28. The system of claim 19wherein the second processor comprises multiple homogeneous processorcores that share the local cache.
 29. A system comprising: a switchfabric; and line interface cards interconnected by the switch fabric, atleast one of the line cards comprising: a media interface to receive andtransmit network traffic; a switch fabric interface to interface to theswitch fabric; and a system, connected to the media interface and theswitch fabric interface, that includes a processor connected to amemory, wherein the processor comprises: processor cores includingheterogeneous processor cores; and a cache connected to and shared bythe processor cores.
 30. The processor of claim 29 wherein theheterogeneous processor cores comprises a special purpose processorcore.
 31. The system of claim 30 wherein the special purpose processorcore comprises a network processor unit (NPU) core.
 32. The system ofclaim 30 wherein the heterogeneous processor cores comprises a centralprocessing unit (CPU) core.
 33. The system of claim 30 wherein theheterogeneous processor cores comprises a NPU core and a CPU core.
 34. Amethod comprising: using a cache connected to and shared byheterogeneous processor cores to pass information between theheterogeneous cores.
 35. The method of claim 34, wherein theheterogeneous processor cores comprises a special purpose processorcore.
 36. The method of claim 35 wherein the special purpose processorcore comprises a network processor unit (NPU) core.
 37. The method ofclaim 35 wherein the special purpose processor core comprises a graphicsengine core.
 38. The method of claim 34 wherein the heterogeneousprocessor cores comprises a central processing unit (CPU) core.
 39. Themethod of claim 34 wherein the heterogeneous processor cores comprises aNPU core and a CPU core.
 40. The method of claim 34 wherein theheterogeneous processor cores comprises a CPU core and a graphics enginecore.
 41. The method of claim 34 wherein the cache comprises amulti-ported cache.
 42. The method of claim 41 wherein the processorcores comprise one or more processor cores of a first type and one ormore processor cores of a second type, and the multi-ported cacheincludes at least one port to support transactions generated by the oneor more processor cores of the first type and at least one port tosupport transactions generated by the one or more processor cores of thesecond type.
 43. The method of claim 42 wherein the ports are configuredto operate based on the respective processor core types that the portssupport.
 44. The method of claim 41 wherein the heterogeneous processorcores comprise processor cores of different types and, and themulti-port cache provides a different port type for each different typeof processor core.
 45. The method of claim 34 wherein an interconnectcouples the heterogeneous processor cores to the cache, and theinterconnect comprises an interconnect bus.
 46. The method of claim 34wherein the heterogeneous processor cores include translation logic totranslate transactions specific to such processor cores tocore-independent transactions.
 47. The method of claim 34 wherein theheterogeneous processor cores comprise different types of processorcores and the cache includes logic to handle transactions generated bythe different types of processor cores.
 48. The method of claim 34wherein at least one of the heterogeneous processor cores is operable tolock a portion of the cache for extended private modification.